Swimming Superstar Honored by Marketer-Led National Movement to Eliminate Gender Bias in Advertising and Media for “Inspirational Achievements”

July 14, 2017 08:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

http://www.seeher.com

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Two-time Olympic gold medalist Simone Manuel was presented with the first-ever #SeeHer Award during a special moment at Nickelodeon’s Kids’ Choice Sports 2017 awards telecast last night. Manuel, who won a total of four medals at the 2016 Rio Olympics and is a two-time individual National Collegiate Athletic Association champion, was chosen for her inspiring role as a barrier breaker for women and girls.

The partnership with Nickelodeon is the latest effort by #SeeHer, the influential national movement led by the Alliance for Family Entertainment (AFE), a subcommittee of the Association of National Advertisers (ANA). The #SeeHer mission is to achieve a 20 percent rise in accurate portrayals of women and girls in advertising and media by 2020 — the 100th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote. The movement’s members include companies who market more than 1,000 of the biggest and most well-known family brands and who represent $40 billion-plus of U.S. television ad spend.

This is the first #SeeHer Award in sports. Last month #SeeHer launched the Advisory Board for Sports and News and welcomed Women’s National Basketball Association President Lisa Borders, former chair of the Coca-Cola Foundation and vice mayor of Atlanta, as its inaugural Board advisor.

“Simone is the embodiment of everything our movement stands for,” says #SeeHer Chair Stephen Quinn. “Sports play a critical role in helping girls learn important life skills such as teamwork, leadership, and confidence. We are delighted that #SeeHer is being recognized as a part of Nickelodeon’s Kids’ Choice Awards.”

In only one year, #SeeHer has become the industry standard in providing advertisers, agencies, and media executives with state-of-the-art insight, activation strategies, and tools to identify and eliminate unconscious bias in ads, entertainment content, and media planning. For business leaders, marketers, agencies, producers, and content creators, #SeeHer has become an integral part of the marketing industry’s process, with a growing number of clients integrating the initiative’s tools into their creative copy testing, media plans, and RFPs.

“Simone is the living truth of why we have taken up this mission, and we congratulate her on an award very well earned,” concludes ANA CEO Bob Liodice.

Despite the strides made to accurately portray women and women in the media, an unconscious bias persists against women and girls in advertising, media, and programming. The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) Alliance for Family Entertainment (AFE) launched the #SeeHer initiative in June 2016 in partnership with The Girl's Lounge, after the White House announced that the elimination of gender bias in media is critical to the nation's future. The #SeeHer initiative’s mission is to increase accurate portrayals of women and girls in media by 20 percent by 2020, the 100th anniversary of women winning the right to vote. For more information, visit www.SeeHer.com, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

About the Association of National Advertisers (ANA)

The ANA (Association of National Advertisers) provides leadership that advances marketing excellence and shapes the future of the industry. Founded in 1910, the ANA's membership includes more than 650 companies with 10,000 brands that collectively spend over $250 billion in marketing and advertising. The ANA also includes the Business Marketing Association (BMA) and the Brand Activation Association (BAA) which operate as divisions of the ANA. The ANA advances the interests of marketers and promotes and protects the well-being of the marketing community. For more information, visit www.ana.net, follow us on Twitter, or join us on Facebook.

About the ANA Alliance for Family Entertainment (AFE)

The ANA AFE is a coalition of national advertisers with more than 1,000 brands, whose members represent $40 billion-plus of U.S. television ad spend. The group's mission is to find, nurture, and support high-quality content the entire family can enjoy on multiple distribution platforms. In 2016 the AFE expanded its mission to include gender equality through its #SeeHer initiative. For more information, see www.SeeHer.com and www.anaafe.net.

About Nickelodeon

Nickelodeon, now in its 38th year, is the number-one entertainment brand for kids. It has built a diverse, global business by putting kids first in everything it does. The company includes television programming and production in the United States and around the world, plus consumer products, digital, recreation, books and feature films. Nickelodeon’s U.S. television network is seen in more than 90 million households and has been the number-one-rated kids’ basic cable network for 22 consecutive years. For more information or artwork, visit http://www.nickpress.com. Nickelodeon and all related titles, characters and logos are trademarks of Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIS, VIAB).